cloud storage [English]

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Syndetic Relationships

InterPARES Definition

n. ~ A cloud service to house and retain digital information that typically can be rapidly and easily provisioned for use by the consumer.

General Notes

May sometimes be referred to as Data Storage as a Service or DSaaS.

Other Definitions

Citations

  • Cloud Storage SNIA 2009 (†501 p. 7): Cloud Storage delivers virtualized storage on demand, over a network based on a request for a given quality of service (QoS). There is no need to purchase storage or in some cases even provision it before storing data. You only pay for the amount of storage your data is actually consuming. (†777)
  • Cloud Storage SNIA 2009 (†501 p. 8): The difference between the purchase of a dedicated appliance and that of cloud storage is not the functional interface, but merely the fact that the storage is delivered on demand. The customer pays for either what they actually use or in other cases, what they have allocated for use. In the case of block storage, a LUN or virtual volume is the granularity of allocation. For file protocols, a filesystem is the unit of granularity. In either case, the actual storage space can be thin provisioned and billed for based on actual usage. Data services such as compression and deduplication can be used to further reduce the actual space consumed. The management of this storage is typically done out of band of these standard Data Storage interfaces, either through an API, or more commonly, though an administrative browser based user interface. This interface may be used to invoke other data services as well, such as snapshot and cloning. (†778)
  • SNIA CDMI 2012 (†553 p. 25): Cloud storage is simply the delivery of virtualized storage on demand. The formal term that is used for this is Data storage as a Service (DaaS). ¶ By abstracting data storage behind a set of service interfaces and delivering it on demand, a wide range of actual offerings and implementations are possible. The only type of storage that is excluded from this definition is that which is delivered in fixed-capacity increments instead of based on demand. . . .The difference between the purchase of a dedicated appliance and that of cloud storage is not the functional interface, but the fact that the storage is delivered on demand. The customer pays for either what they actually use or what they have allocated for use (†917)
  • Vaughan-Nichols 2013 (†513 ): While remote file storage has been with us for decade – I had remote storage on a Unix server using file transfer protocol (ftp) and NFS (Network File System) in the 80s – cloud storage for the masses didn't really get going until 2007 when Drew Houston, Dropbox's CEO and founder, got sick and tired of never being able to "remember to keep my USB drive with me". (†803)
  • Wikipedia (†387 s.v. "cloud storage"): Cloud storage is a model of networked enterprise storage where data is stored not only in the user's computer, but in virtualized pools of storage which are generally hosted by third parties, too. Hosting companies operate large data centers, and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them. The data center operators, in the background, virtualize the resources according to the requirements of the customer and expose them as storage pools, which the customers can themselves use to store files or data objects. Physically, the resource may span across multiple servers. The safety of the files depends upon the hosting websites. ¶ Architecture Cloud storage is based on highly virtualized infrastructure and is like broader cloud computing in terms of accessible interfaces, near-instant elasticity and scalability, multi-tenancy, and metered resources. Cloud storage services can be utilized from an off-premises service . . . or deployed on-premises . . . . ¶ Cloud storage typically refers to a hosted object storage service, but the term has broadened to include other types of data storage that are now available as a service, like block storage. (†222)
  • Wikipedia (†387 s.v. "cloud storage"): a model of data storage where the digital data is stored in logical pools, the physical storage spans multiple servers (and often locations), and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store end user, organization, or application data. ¶ Cloud storage services may be accessed through a co-located cloud compute service, a web service application programming interface (API) or by applications that utilize the API, such as cloud desktop storage, a cloud storage gateway or Web-based content management systems. (†804)